B.C.’s social housing sector hoping for more Federal funding

With the provincial budget done, all eyes now turn to Ottawa where not only big projects like the Broadway SkyTrain and light rail in Surrey are waiting for the Federal windfall…the social housing sector is too.

CEO of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association Tony Roy says the Trudeau government needs to move on co-op housing.

“There are about 4,000 units of co-op housing that are at risk of losing their subsidies. Even though the Province of B.C. announced 2,000 units of social housing, if we lose 4,000 units of co-op housing, we will be digging ourselves deeper into the hole.”

What else is Roy looking for in next month’s federal budget?

“We are looking for 100,000 units of social housing, or a commitment to build that within the next 5 to 10 years.”

His other federal ask.

“Is whether or not the federal government is going to spend money on renovations on the existing stock. Our data shows that in BC alone just to make the existing social housing stock that was built 30 years ago inhabitable and safe we are going to need about $190-million to bring that stuff up to snuff.”

Roy says Canada wide the renovation bill would be almost two-billion-dollars.

? ? ?
Radically Wrong Kennie . . . “Election Campaign” ? ? ?
This is FEDERAL money , , ,
How would YOU grow the BC Economy Kennie ?
BC is the ONLY province in Canada that is not failing today . . . while the Nutley Regime in Alberta flushes their economy and Ontar-i-owe is mired in debt.
Watch Justin spend like ole Dad . . . it’s back to the good ole days . . . lol
And the under 45s are going to get the BILL ! !

Any ideas on where the money for this is to come from? Bearing in mind the supposed need to increase funding for health care, education, social services, refugees, climate change, and thousands of other initiatives. Sensible people identify how much things are going to cost, and then determine where this money is to come from. But when it comes to other people’s money, money is no object. And who really benefits? Insiders and politically connected people.

Despite frequent complaints from Ontario and other provincial governments that they aren’t getting enough money from Ottawa (without stating how much “enough” is), federal transfers to the provinces have actually increased substantially in recent years. In fact, after accounting for inflation and population changes, federal transfers to the provinces and territories are now at an all-time historic high.
These transfers include equalization, which depend on a province’s fiscal capacity, as well as the Canada Health Transfer and Canada Social Transfer, which are paid to all provinces based on the size of their populations.
While federal transfers are on the rise overall, transfers to the specific provinces are not increasing at the same rate. Instead, some provinces have experienced much faster growth in the size of their federal transfer envelopes than others over the past decade.
Of particular significance are federal transfers to Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and largest economy, which have increased especially rapidly since 2005/06. In fact, over the past decade, major federal transfers to Ontario increased from $10.9 billion to $20.4 billion—an increase of 87.8 per cent. This is the second largest increase among all provinces. By comparison, total transfers to the provinces and territories have increased by 62.3 per cent during the same period.
The chart below compares each of the ten provinces in terms of the increase in their transfer payments since 2005/06. It shows that transfers to Ontario have increased much faster than transfers to all other provinces except for Alberta. Alberta’s uniquely large increase was caused by a substantial increase in its population, as well as a recent change to the formula for determining the distribution of Canada Health Transfer payments.
– See more at: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/federal-transfers-to-ontario-up-878-per-cent-since-200506#sthash.GgsAy4Sp.dpuf